Serving in Lomasbonitas, Mexico

I had the priviledge this June to spend some time with my friend Melody, her husband Jeremy and their 14mo. old son Caleb. For six days I stayed with them in their 3 bed room trailer in Ensenada where they currently live serving as missionaries. What I had realized once again is the fact that God is working all the time even through the summer!

Going on this trip I looked at it as a ministry to my friends with one goal in mind based off of 1 Thessalonians 2. My goal was to make my visit not a burden but a blessing to the family. There was always some way for me to serve (for example: cleaning dishes, playing/reading to Caleb, sweeping the patio, etc...). Even the most obvious of ways to serve as a guest would be to keep one's own things tidy especially if you are sleeping in any kind of communal space. On Wednesday Melody and I went to Lomasbonitas to cut hair from 12pm-4pm at a church that does a feeding program for the kids and moms of that particular neighborhood. Lomasbonitas meaning "beautiful hills" is a poor community where most have made their own housing from scraps of metal and wood and whatever else is around. However, through three main organizations-including the one my friend works for, they build houses in replace of their "homemade" houses. By 4pm Melody and I were ready to take a rest after estimating cutting roughly 20 kids.

The time spent with Melody, Jeremy and Caleb was so exciting to meet the locals, the interns, and the staff who lives to provide for the material needs and the need for Jesus of all of the locals everyday. And what a sweet surprise Melody and I experienced as we stopped off on the side of the road where a man sold both copper and metal pots all ranging in size. As Melody spoke with the man he said that he too was a Christian who gave his life to God. His request was that Melody and I would continue to pray for his daughter and son-in-law who were not saved to pray for their salvation. How blessed and encouraged we were to have met another Chrisitian! The man said basically that mi casa es su casa-meaning that the minsitry to help the Mexican culture know the Lord made him want to serve us in return the next time we met with better prices on his handiwork. The kindness and hospitality was humbling seeing how the Lord takes care of my friends in His own way.
"May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for eachother and for everyone else..."
1 Thessalonians 4: 12

The Journey continues...

When we ask the Lord to transform us more into His likeness and transform our hearts He is faithful in accomplishing His good work in us. Apart of transforming me to be more like Him this year has been providing me with extra spare time.
This last Saturday was my first day without a job; the LA salon that I work at went out of business. While this can be a time of stress and frustration I was encouraged by Spreuken 3;5-7 “Vertrouw op de HERE met uw ganse hart en steun op uw eigen inzicht niet. Ken Hem in al uw wegen, dan zal Hij uw paden recht Maken. Wees niet wijs in eigen ogen, vrees de HERE en wijk van het kwadd; het zal medicijn wezen voor uw vless, en lafenis vor uw gebeente.”
(Translation) Proverbs 3:5-7 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” This absence of work has allowed for more focus on school, ministry at the church working with the middle/high school girls, and more time with God. I am apart of Bible Study Fellowship (B.S.F.) where we are studying the book of John. This has helped guide my thinking in that during difficult times it is possible to bring God glory if I choose to submit myself fully to His will. As the verse in Proverbs has said, that trusting Him leads to a straight path.
A prayer request that I have been asking for is for my schedule to open up so I can help with the middle school and high school group that consists currently only of girls and sometimes one boy. Since September I have been working on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings to be available in whatever capacity I am needed. So with this comes constant prayer for lives to continually be changed so that the group would be a light in Castaic, California.
School has been more challenging for me this spring semester. I am learning a lot about evolution in most of my classes so guarding my heart and mind from that which is false is important. This is one of the biggest reasons why I need to set my mind on the things above (Colossians 3:1-2). I have about one more year or so left until I can transfer to a University- which one that is I will keep you posted but tentatively it is Master’s College which is 15minutes away from my house.
Another way that the Lord continues to provide is with the new college group set up at our church. This has been such a comfort and encouragement as I am building healthier friendships as we care for each other as brothers and sisters in the body of Christ. There are so many wonderful personalities that I get to enjoy and even eat some tasty treats like poached pears. Yum!
Serving Him,
Carley Meijer

Faith Like A Child

Do we forget that we are children of the great I AM? He who is mighty to save. Through Him we find wisdom.

As I lead one of the teams this last week during the conference at Connect 2009 I was able to share with this team of six, how children are such good examples of having faith. This person was hesitant to ask the nine through eleven year olds a question which he thought might be difficult to answer. Another person on the team then said if we would just asked the children the question as we were to ask an adult the child may understand the question if not ask for the meaning.



"Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me."" Matthew 18:2-5



I shook my head yes, agreeing with this person on the team who spoke up. That morning session my encouragement to the team was this: that we too would have faith like a child. The verses in Matthew speak to us about the importance of faith which is that we simply trust with full dependence knowing that we have not the capability nor the resources on our own. It is relying on God rather than in ourselves. This is important because there are times we hold back sharing the gospel or in general-with others whothe Lord is. In the case of the conference we hesitate to propose questions that we assume may be too difficult for them to understand. When we give the children an opportunity to learn further and challenge them to think deeper in the Lord we may be suprised by how much they can retain, and comprehend they want to understand more "Who is this Jesus?". May we have faith like a child and remember this verse. "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity." 1Timothy 4:12



I pray this finds you encouraged,

Carley